England look for NatWest equaliser at The Oval

Plans have been announced to enhance security at The Oval ahead of Friday's second one-day international between England and Pakistan in order to prevent a repeat of the scenes at Old Trafford, where hundreds of spectators stormed onto the outfield to celebrate Pakistan's two-wicket victory in the first NatWest Challenge meeting.

Whether the same group of fans will be quite so ready to run on to celebrate another victory depends largely on whether England's batsmen can come to terms with Pakistan's attack, or whether a combination of inexperience and injudicious shot-selection again leaves England's bowlers an inadequate total to defend.

There is no doubt that both of these somewhat experimental sides deserve another chance at The Oval. Pakistan certainly merit another go because they won at Old Trafford and most of their players made significant individual contributions towards the team success. Having said that, it would be unthinkable for Shoaib Akhtar not to return to the attack after his suspension for ball-tampering on what is the quickest pitch in the land. Shoaib and Mohammad Sami will give those England batsmen no respite from raw pace.

And what of England? Nobody could reasonably expect that while planning for the 2007 World Cup, the selectors would get it spot on first time. They had presumably seen enough of the batting of the youngsters who failed in Manchester to suggest there is better to come.

What would make it so much easier for them is to arrive in the middle with a decent total already on the board. That requires the more experienced players to convert starts into proper innings. Five of the top six got into double figures at Old Trafford, yet the top score was only 39, by Andrew Flintoff. Four of Pakistan's top six got into double figures, but Mohammad Hafeez played the matchwinning innings of 69. That was the difference between two evenly matched teams.

There might well be a clue at The Oval as to whether either of these sides will be considered genuine contenders for the World Cup in four years' time. There was no shortage of excitement at Old Trafford, but an obvious lack of quality. If either side shows signs of learning to reach an acceptable level of quality, and so diminish the excitement, that team has a future. It does not have to be the finished article, but it should be able to demonstrate that first-night nerves were shrouding potential at Old Trafford rather than a thrilling finish masking a lack of ability. What price a decider at Lord's on Sunday?

Probable teams
England 1 Marcus Trescothick, 2 Vikram Solanki, 3 Michael Vaughan (capt), 4 Jim Troughton, 5 Andrew Flintoff, 6 Anthony McGrath, 7 Rikki Clarke, 8 Chris Read (wk), 9 Ashley Giles, 10 Darren Gough, 11 Jimmy Anderson.

Pakistan 1 Imran Nazir, 2 Mohammad Hafeez, 3 Yasir Hameed, 4 Yousuf Youhana, 5 Shoaib Malik, 6 Azhar Mahmood, 7 Rashid Latif (capt, wk), 8 Abdul Razzaq, 9 Shoaib Akhtar, 10 Mohammad Sami, 11 Umar Gul.